Storm Socks St. Marys

May 1, 2012

Staff photo/Mike Burkholder: A tree fell on a garage and a van at 312 S. Main St. in St. Marys Monday night.

ST. MARYS — Wind gusts of more than 50 mph downed tree limbs, picked up trampolines and toppled trees in the St. Marys area Monday night.

A gust front whipped through St. Marys, bringing strong winds and heavy rain. Auglaize County EMA Director Troy Anderson said the storm pounded St. Marys and moved north toward Glynwood Road.

“What I was able to measure at my residence was 52 to 55 mph gusts, which lasted two to three minutes,” Anderson said this morning, noting he received no reports of injuries associated with the storm. “We saw some limbs down, some trees down that were good and bad, some trampolines blown around and some shingles off homes.”

Portions of the city of St. Marys lost power during the storm. St. Marys Electric Superintendent Jerry Wolfe said there were two outages that impacted city residents.

“The main outage was the west circuit, there was a large tree that fell in the lines and one of the poles snapped in two,” Wolfe said. “That was just east of Lost in the 50s Diner. That outage started at 6:52 p.m. and ended at 8:20 p.m.”

Wolfe said a group of 25 residents in that area were without power until 12:50 a.m. today. Another, smaller outage hit the north side near the Gordon Grove area. Approximately 20 people were without power in that area until 9:48 p.m.

The National Weather Service in Wilmington issued a severe thunderstorm warning at approximately 7 p.m. Monday.

Anderson said while winds were strong, there was not a threat of a tornado.

“I didn’t see anything come through,” Anderson said.

“Just basically this front came through ... Some of the gusts could have been the equivalent of a small tornado and that’s why people heard some howling winds.”

Anderson is plotting all storm damage. He encouraged residents to e-mail him at tanderson@auglaizecounty.org or post the information on the Auglaize County EMA’s Facebook page.